The present invention relates generally to a controller for household electronic devices and more particularly to a remote control for a home entertainment system.
In recent years, the number of components and services available for a home entertainment system has grown, including VCRs, DVDs, videogames, picture-in-picture, cable, satellite, etc. With this increase in the number of components and services available, the number of permutations of possible configurations of these components and services has increased dramatically to include displaying a video signal from one component while recording a video signal from a different component, watching video signals from different components using picture-in-picture, etc.
A known remote control simplifies the process somewhat by being programmable to operate each of the different components and services even though they utilize different protocols, frequencies and different types of receivers (i.e., infrared, RF, etc.). The known remote control also simplifies some processes through the utilization of macros which can be programmed to operate a plurality of the components and services. For example, activating a xe2x80x9cwatch VCRxe2x80x9d macro would cause the known remote control to (1) turn the TV on, (2) turn the TV to channel 3, (3) turn the VCR on. However, this remote control macro assumes the initial state of all of the components, in particular that TV and VCR are off, and the VCR has a tape in it. Because the on/off switches in most of these components are toggle switches, if the component is already on, it will be turned off by the macro. As another example, the remote control assumes that the videotape is in the VCR, which may not be true. Thus, the known remote control will not always work, depending on the initial status of the components and services.
The present invention provides a controller for a home entertainment system that provides more consistent results by generating a status query regarding the initial status of the components and services. Based upon a response to the status query, the controller of the present invention operates the components and services consistently and reliably.
In a preferred embodiment, the controller is a remote control for a home entertainment system. The remote control includes an output device, such as a display screen, generating the status query regarding the status of at least one component. The remote control further includes a user input device by which the user responds to the query from the remote control to indicate the status of the components. The remote control further includes a transmitter for generating the control signal to the component based upon the indication from the user of the status of the component. In this manner, the controller generates a consistent, reliable result and is easier to use than the known control device.